We’ve seen non-state actors like Daesh using social media to radicalise their followers.

And we’ve watched cyber criminals leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

It’s not only the Yahoo hack…where data was stolen from 500 million people

…in the biggest publicly disclosed cyber-breach in history.

It’s the fact that …90% of large organisations reported last year they had suffered some form of a security breach.

The average cost of the most severe online security breaches for bigger companies starts at almost £1.5 million …doubled in a year

…up £600,000 in 2014.

Virtual threats have physical consequences.

It’s only a matter of time…in our view… before we have to deal with a major attack on British interests. That’s why, in last year’s SDSR, cyber was listed as a Tier One threat …up there with terrorism or a major natural hazard.

But you’ve not been here for the scare but to protect yourselves

How?

By learning 3 important lessons from the age of airpower.

1. Innovation

First, we must innovate.

100 years ago the first pilots on the Somme were flying wooden and canvass aircraft.

Now we’re building fifth generation lightning strike fighters.

Britain is already a world leader in cyber security.

But we can’t afford any complacency.

That’s why HMG is investing some £1.9 billion across government, almost doubling investment, to protect the UK from attack, to keep ahead of the curve.

We’re already seeing that investment bearing fruit.

Earlier this year, I announced the development of a new Cyber Security Operation Centre at the MOD…bringing together our defensive cyber activity to safeguard our military networks and systems against cyber threats.

This month we launched the new National Cyber Security Centre in Victoria… whose headquarters will be a stone’s throw from us here in Church House.

That centre is uniting Britain’s brightest brains from across Whitehall and across the private sector to defend Britain’s cyber infrastructure.

Today, I can announce we’re investing a further £265 million funding in a pioneering approach to root out cyber vulnerabilities within our military platforms and wider cyber dependent systems.

Funding that will help protect existing platforms and new platforms such as the new Queen Elizabeth Class.

The UK is a world leader in cyber security, and we recognise that cyber risk is one of the greatest threats we face in the modern world.

It is crucial that we innovate and stay ahead of this ever changing danger.

By investing in this programme we’re helping ensure the UK is fully protected.

But, this isn’t just be about defence as, as our US colleagues would say.

Offensive cyber

It must be about offense. It is important that our adversaries know there is a price to pay if they use cyber weapons against us, and that we have the capability to project power in cyberspace as in other domains.

We must exploit the opportunities that cyber presents to deliver military effects. The government announced a year ago that we are developing capability through the National Offensive Cyber Programme, in which the MOD and GCHQ are close partners.

We also said in the SDSR that our commitment to invest 2% of GDP in defence would help ensure that our armed forces will increasingly be able to operate as effectively in cyberspace as they do by land, sea or air.

Since then, we have begun to integrate Offensive Cyber into our military planning alongside the full range of military effects.

We will continue to develop and exploit cyber’s potential to complement and enhance our conventional military capabilities and assets.

2. Skills

This brings me to my second point

We can’t operate or develop the right capabilities without the right skills.

Over the past 100 years

…the UK has relied on brilliant aviation pioneers like Sir Thomas Sopwith, RJ Mitchell and Frank Whittle to reach for the skies.

We want to match now that conveyor belt of talent in cyberspace.

We’re not just looking for people with IT expertise.

From Vietnam through to Afghanistan and Iraq.

…we’ve learnt perception is nine-tenths of the war.

Today hostile actors and agents see cyber as a way of controlling the narrative.

…to ensure that the Alliance is strong and resilience in the face of cyber threats.

Britain’s commitment to spending a minimum of 2% GDP on defence means we can invest in a military that is cyber trained, cyber secure and cyber enabled…with the ability to fight in every domain in any future conflict. At Warsaw, we advocated NATO recognition of cyber as a domain of operations…

…in which NATO must defend itself as effectively as it does in each of the other domains.

…and will give us an improved NATO ability to maintain freedom of action across the global cyber commons.

Yet perhaps the greatest contribution will be to enlarge our understanding of the terms of engagement.

One of the most devastating effects of cyber weaponry

…is its capacity to deepen the fog of war

…to add additional layers of ambiguity to the actions of an aggressor.

So, as NATO reaffirms the relevance of international law in cyber space

…we must be clear that cyber could constitute an armed attack

…while preparing our full spectrum response

…and considering what sort of political or public support will be required by such a response.

And…just as we must also think more closely about the impact cyber will have …on the nature of our military operations and objectives…on our tactics… and on our strategy in future.

There are not easy answers.

But by gathering the right network of people together…through this conference…I believe we’ve made a start. And we’re already looking ahead to next year’s conference in the Netherlands.

Conclusion

I began by mentioning the transformative power of airpower.

In ending I’d note that airpower didn’t just transform 20th century warfare.

It transformed society itself.

The sky used to be a limit.

It isn’t now.

Today we can get a flight to anywhere on the globe.

Tomorrow we might be catching a flight into space.

So my hope is that

…if we get cyber right…

…we have the potential too

…not just to bolster our capability and improve our security

…but to bring in the jobs, the investment…the talent to power our economies for decades to come.

And if we do that job properly…100 years from now…our successors will look back on this moment…the dawn of a new cyber age…as the moment when a potentially devastating threat turned into a dazzling economic and social opportunity.

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